Mateja Stanislava Rot

From : LjubljanaTo: Valletta

Sharing the legacy: What makes a city better? - presentation of Open Plot: Creative transformations of self-made city

Interdisciplinary

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How did this grant contribute to the realization of your project in regard to artistic exchange, local cultural development and/or the promotion of cultural diversity?

I gained some really meaningful insight into what it takes to be an urban leader in current digital reality and caretaker of the future commons while paying attention to always changing conditions in contemporary cities and is adapting/refocusing/reframing with high speed.
The conference has brought the latest findings on how to make cities resilient, more radical and inclusive, and we have been engaged in fervent discussions on how to turn urban spaces into participatory hubs. It also informed me on the current trends in city development and activation of cultural and creative expression.

How does exchange, networking and international contacts contribute to the development of your artistic and cultural project?

Within the scope of my project presentation at the conference in one of the working sessions I have established a really interesting discussion on particular aspects of creative city planning and architectural innovation. We have thoroughly discussed the issue of how a city supports self-making initiatives and if a gap exists between associative initiatives and the way the city behaves and plugs itself on the energy liberated by these initiatives. We also talked about opportunities for the city to link up and support alternative city-making initiatives through artistic creation. Overall, I contributed and took active part in designing a constellation of actions where we started with a joint mapping process of the cities of future.

Can you elaborate on the learning and knowledge you have gained and shared throughout this experience?

At this point I would like to mention that I was particularly impressed by the numerous individual thematic workshops as they were very relevant for me and my professional development. Throughout these very practical and active sessions we have engaged deeply in the debate around renewal of the city, design clusters, collaborative knowledge productions in cities, co-working with citizens, pedestrianisation and green spaces, culture, politics and capital in urban transformation as well as evaluating the city. I really appreciated the space that was given to presentations of individual experts, architects, planners, researchers and professors coming from all over Europe which was the best takeaway of the entire conference for me. We have gathered in smaller groups so we could work on particular issues more thoroughly and engage more personally. I am most happy to have participated in this amazing and very informative conference.